Black Beauty rock 'is oldest chunk of Mars'BBC NewsA rock discovered in the Sahara Desert is the oldest Martian meteorite ever found, scientists believe.
Earlier research had suggested it was about two billion years old, but new tests indicate the rock actually dates to 4.4 billion years ago.
The dark and glossy meteorite, nicknamed Black Beauty, would have formed when the Red Planet was in its infancy.

Goldschmidt2014 Workshop deadline is Dec. 1GS
Over 400 delegates participated in workshops before the Florence Goldschmidt, and there will be an opportunity to run workshops again immediately before Goldschmidt2014. This is a really convenient time for graduate students and others, as they will be together in California for the conference in any case. As with last year, the conference can provide all the administration of the workshop, so all an Organizer needs to do is suggest a title and prepare the materials.

If you would like to run a workshop immediately before Goldschmidt2014 which would attract more than 20 participants, please complete the application form available from the workshop information page on the conference website and return it to the conference help desk before Dec. 1. This form will provide the Organizing Committee with enough information to select the workshops to be approved at their meeting early in December. The Organizers of approved workshops will then need to produce a final set of specifications and advertising materials by Jan. 10 so that the forms for delegates to use to book places at workshops can open on Feb. 1.

Frontiers of Earth System DynamicsGS
NSF funding is available for graduate students to work on a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional collaborative research program to solve the enigma of Earth's Great Oxidation Event (GOE) at the following institutions: Arizona State University, MIT, UC Riverside, University of Maryland, and University of Washington. Information about this Frontiers of Earth System Dynamics initiative, including links to the institutions and investigators, as well as information on how to apply, are available at earlyo2.org.

Share this article:

Underwater 'tree rings' show 650 years of sea ice changeScienceDailyAlmost 650 years of annual change in sea-ice cover can been seen in the calcite crust growing among layers of seafloor algae, says a new study from the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM). "This is the first time coralline algae have been used to track changes in Arctic sea ice," said Jochen Halfar, an associate professor in UTM's department of chemical and physical sciences. "We found the algal record shows a dramatic decrease in ice cover over the last 150 years."

Uncertain future for iconic 'Keeling curve' CO2 measurementsScientific AmericanRecently, officials at California's Scripps Institution of Oceanography turned to Twitter seeking donations to maintain the iconic 'Keeling curve', a 55-year record of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. An appeal for funds launched in July had attracted only a few small con­tributions, not nearly enough to keep the program going.